The sun may have been setting but the good times rolled in downtown Vicksburg Thursday night.

The first Downtown at Dusk concert of the year was held Thursday evening from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at River Stage Plaza on the corner of Crawford and Washington streets. The city of Vicksburg and the Vicksburg Main Street Program sponsor the event that is set to continue once a month through October.

“It’s just a fun night for everybody to come out,” Vicksburg Main Street assistant director Rebecca Sigh said. “It’s a good variety of music too.”

Ben Shaw kicked off his set at 6 p.m. where he sang, played keyboard and a little guitar covering blues, rock and country songs while also playing some of his original music.

“We love Ben’s music,” Helen McGehee said. “We think it’s important to see downtown Vicksburg come back to life. We want to see more events like this come to Vicksburg.”

She said she found out about the event through Facebook and really enjoyed herself at the concert with her husband Clyde and Shaw’s wife Paula.

“We’re really glad they have the tents and the fans. It really helps,” Paula said.

Tents, fans, folding chairs and bleachers were provided for seating and shade, but many attendees brought their own chairs to relax in the shadows of the trees.

“Since we have Fourth of July coming up, we went ahead and brought the bleachers tonight for the event. Normally we don’t do that, we just put out chairs,” Vicksburg Main street director Kim Hopkins said. “Since it’s so hot, we put out fans to make it cooler, and it has helped.”

The night started off in sweltering heat with a small crowd, but as the sun lowered in the sky, the crowd began to grow. DJ Reo played music during the intermission, and at 8 p.m. Jessie Primer Jr. hit the stage playing jazz music on saxophone.

Wanda Bell heard about the concert through the Vicksburg Association for Women and saw the event as a fun night out with her husband Joseph.

“I just wanted to see what it was all about, and I love music,” Wanda said.

The nice weather and low humidity brought Morgan and Gwen Gates, who read about the event in the newspaper, out to the concert.

“We thought it’d be a good night to sit out and listen to some music,” Morgan said. “We love downtown.”

He was glad to see an event happening during the evening in downtown considering many of the shops typically close up at 5 p.m. However, many stores stay open later on Thursdays, and merchants were happy to have a fun event to bring business their way.

“I consider downtown as a major hub for Vicksburg, and since I am a merchant downtown I definitely want to see more locals come down and visit downtown and visit with each other,” said Angela Jenkins, event organizer and owner of Tresses Hair Salon.

Organizer Karen Davis said the people of Vicksburg should support events like this so no one can complain that there is nothing to do in Vicksburg.

“We’ve got to come out and support to make sure stuff like this continues to go on,” Davis said.